


No, I am Jeon Woochi

by Spinacheese93



Category: ONEUS (Band), ONEWE (Band)
Genre: Gen, Historical-ish AU, Loosely about Taoist magic, The rest of Onewe are children, conman being found out by the real one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26544457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spinacheese93/pseuds/Spinacheese93
Summary: Youngjo comes home to some bad rumours about his work persona
Relationships: Jin Yonghoon & Kim Youngjo | Ravn
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23
Collections: WEUS Harvest Moon Fest





	No, I am Jeon Woochi

"Beware of that Jeon Woochi guy."

Youngjo almost stopped in his step as he heard a conversation of two men passing by him. That name, on their tongue feels foreign to him despite it was his work name. _Again?_ He had been gone on travel for two months, he was away from this small town, but the way the name was spoken, it was as if he never left. What goes on, he wonders.

He makes his way through the busy roads, taking familiar turns until he sees a small candy shop. He enters the shop to see a familiar face- no two familiar faces. Hwanwoong, his other friend is also there, in the middle of bantering the other familiar face that he expected to see, Keonhee.

"Youngjo-hyung, you're back!" Keonhee exclaims, his face brightens. He runs and hops on Youngjo, giving the tightest hugs Youngjo has ever received. Almost as immediately, he lets go, scrunching his nose in disgust. "Ack! Youngjo, you need a bath." 

"Hwanwoong, it's already late, close the shop for me today, will you?" Keonhee says, as he pull Youngjo to the back of the shop, into their small living space. From the corner of Youngjo's eyes, he sees Hwanwoong looking dumbfounded and wronged. They were definitely in a heated debate before he showed up and now Keonhee asked that of him. Youngjo smiles, amused. It's always lively with the both of them.

Keonhee excuses himself to draw a bath for Youngjo. Youngjo drops the makeshift slingbag he was carrying, he opens up the foldings of the cloth and organize the contents inside it. There are pieces of parchment papers, some rocks and various other ornaments he had collected from the travel. He reaches for the basket he had been bringing around with him and study the vials of liquids inside it while referring to the writings on the parchment papers. He opens some to take a whiff of the content before labelling it and placing it back into the basket. He notices darkness is slowly creeping as the day pass, before he could stand up and light up the kerosene lamps, Keonhee already came back with one lamp in his hand. He had finished warming up the bath. The same time, Hwanwoong also walks in the room with another kerosene lamp. He still looks mad at Keonhee but his face softens when he looks at Youngjo. Youngjo leaves the two of them to settle what they had earlier that evening and walks to the bathroom.

The bath water is at the best temperature, Youngjo almost dozes off. He keeps thinking about the word of mouth he heard on his way home.

"Jeon Woochi is good at his job, no doubt. He is the only one who can do it around here."

"But the price is daylight robbery. I did not expect it after travelling this far." 

"I heard the haunting and ailment would return if you do not comply with his demands. Or you'll get played by him."

"His pranks aren't bad. But just because he is the only one these visitors can turn to, he could abuse his power?"

Youngjo brings a handful of water and splash it on his face. He is sure the townspeople are not talking about him when referring to Jeon Woochi. Maybe he should ask the two outside.

* * *

"An impostor?" Youngjo parrots.

"A convincing one. Since no one knows about Jeon Woochi's real identity, no one can tell if he is real." Hwanwoong continues. "Aside from us, of course. But his mannerism reminds us of you. It's eerie." 

"Have you try to confront him?" Youngjo asks.

"We did. It didn't end well. He sent some demons to haunt us. While the demons are low class and harmless, their presence scare the living daylights out of Keonhee and I. And annoying. Can you imagine going round in circles for an hour while making your way to the toilet with a full bladder?" Hwanwoong shudders. Keonhee who is tucked under Youngjo's arm, buries himself deeper.

Youngjo releases a light cough which is actually a chuckle he tries to suppress at the thought of his friends being played by the low class demons who couldn't do much damage except for adding a bit of chaos to the humans they haunted. He notices there are several paper talismans pasted on the walls randomly across the shop and their shared living space. He recognized that it was his and he tries to brush off the mental image of how his friends opened his talisman case in desperation and as a last resort to remove the chaos in this house as to not laugh at their expense. 

"We never saw him anymore since." Hwanwoong says, as he flips to lie on his back, hands behind his head.

"Do you know where I can find him?" Youngjo asks again.

* * *

Yonghoon checks on his face in the mirror before tying a veil to cover everything except his eyes. "It's go time."

He walks out of his house with his full 'Jeon Woochi' getup stealthily, making sure nobody from his neighbourhood could see and learn the identity of Jeon Woochi. The other Jeon Woochi. It's not like anyone would know that he is not the real one, no one knows what that local taoist wizard, who unabashedly named himself as Jeon Woochi from the stories, look like. He fully covers himself with baggy hanbok and having a veil on his face. Yonghoon had never thought that crossing paths with the wizard would help him later in the near future.

He passes by the cold and dead alley that he has many numb memories of, he brushes of the memories as they knock on his consciousness. No time for that, he thinks. He also passes by the spot where he usually see the real Jeon Woochi doing his trade, he had started his impersonation of the wizard exactly there but was confronted by two men who allegedly knows who the real wizard is. They try to be diplomatic about it but the smaller of the two got a bit heated and Yonghoon thought, he should send them off.

Impersonating a taoist wizard is not that hard for him because he had studied them a bit before his parents successfully talked him into having a normal career. However, that career didn't end well and he flee from his hometown and ended up here. His luck ran out and so does his savings, leaving him lying on the dark alley he passed a while ago. That was when he met the wizard, he watched him from afar, living his forgotten dream.

This is for putting food on the table, he thinks as his moral compass tries to turn back to it's original alignment. He's not someone who would ever con another human being, but it was a con that had lead his stable life to spiraled down and made him rejected by his birthplace. He was not sure how long he would be doing this, he had heard that the wizard will be leaving to gather materials but he was not sure how long. And until now, he had avoided the townspeople when they seek for him in fearing that they might know who his true identity. He only take requests from tourists and visitors from outside of town, which consists of making talismans, potions and exorcism of demons on a small movable object. Exorcism of a larger scale is something he would avoid since it was outside of his capabilities. 

His thought is stopped by a figure standing in front of him. Yonghoon's eyes are instantly drawn into the man's face which strongly gives out cat-like features, especially his eyes. Oh, he's... _pretty_. "Good morning, sir. What are your worries for today? I can take your frown and turn it upside down." _What?_ That was incredibly lame, Jin Yonghoon, he mentally scolds himself as he sees the man raises his eyebrows. "The name is Jeon Woochi."

"I can help make talismans to ward off evil and I can help heal ailments. Is there a missus or a child sick at home? Or a cursed object?" He politely asks with a huge business smile on his face.

"Can you, now, Jeon Woochi-nim" the man said. 

His stomach drops. Every now and then, there comes men and women all the same trying to question his magic. He wants to roll his eyes so bad, but he also could potentially lose a client because usually these non-believers are desperate enough to come to him but have doubts knotted in their hearts. It's up to him to lift those doubts. So he lets out a laugh which sounds dryer than intended and continues his huge smile. "Ah, a non-believer. What can I do to take your distrust away?"

The pretty man falls silent, thinking. Yonghoon looks around and sees a bird a distant away from them, a bit secluded from the views of the people. It is perching on the roof of a house. The sheer distance alone would cancel out the possibility that he could be lying, added with the height of the roof that would make one sweat if they were to climb on it in a blink of an eye." I can teleport to where the pigeon is. Would you like to see it?"

The man chuckles, folding his arms. It sounds cynical if he wasn't already looking at the man. He is not being cynical, rather a bit amused. "Okay." In a blink of an eye, he finds himself on the warm roof of the house he pointed a while ago and he sees the pigeon is now in front of the man. The bird flaps it's wings in surprise which startles the man. He laughs at the reaction that the once calm man gives out. He waves a little when the man looks at him. The man then walks over to the house. "Wait, why are you coming here, I could just teleport back." He whispers to himself as he tries to climb down the roof. Suddenly, his body freezes as he see a huge stray dog on the ground. There is another one nearby it. 

"Are you okay?" He hears the man calls out to him.

As if he understands, the man tries to attract the attention of the two dogs and picks up a stick to scare them away. The dogs scramble out of the place and Yonghoon climbs down safely. When he is almost on the ground, he jumps down with a pose, hoping that it would look cool to save his face. He laughs dryly. "So?" He waves his arms around as if to show the man that there are nothing in his sleeves.

"Impressive. You are legit." The man compliments. "Listen, my house is-" 

"I- don't do house visits." Yonghoon tuts. "You can describe your situation and I can make some talismans and list down the procedure you could do yourself to ward off evil. But no house visits." 

"Why?"

"I just don't do it. For safety reasons." _For keeping my identity safe_ , Yonghoon doesn't say.

"You used to do that before." The man adds.

Yonghoon turns to look at the man. Did he accept the wrong client? He has never seen this man before and his clothes looks foreign, he thought this man is another tourist who caught wind of Jeon Woochi like many others. Who is this man? He thinks carefully about the reply he is about to give the man. "W-well," he mentally curses at himself for not sounding confident enough.

"A failed exorcism which escalated. Details schmetails, but I won't do house visits for a while. You can ask again in a week's time." He knows for sure his answer is not enough. But if this person is desperate, he would find Jeon Woochi again and maybe it is going to be the real Jeon Woochi he'd see. After all, he's had his fun, he gathered some savings to start over and he'll start earning clean money for his family.

Family.

To his surprise, the man does not press further. Instead, he looks like he is studying Yonghoon, which is a little bit creepy but also flattering in a way Yonghoon could not explain. Maybe it's his pretty face. Being stared by a pretty man would make your stomach turns, but there's also this sinking feeling that the man could figure out that he is a conman? But then again, Yonghoon believes that he is also worthy of being stared, having a tall stature, long eyelashes and a handsome face. He used to be the talk of the town when he was young and back in his hometown.

"Do you have something to help my friend? You see, he is a bit of a scaredy cat. He would scream at the slightest movement in the dark, which causes a bit of an issue with the neighbour." The man asks. "And something to clear my nose and throat in the morning."

"I might have just the thing." Yonghoon turns to find the items needed but realizes that he had left his bag of items home. So he asks the man to wait before he teleports home to fetch it. He gives the man two items, a potion for sinus clearing and a talisman for awareness along with the instructions on how to use them. He is also prepared to get a frown or a rebuttal from the man when he name his price, but instead the man quietly pays him, thanks him with a smile and walks away.

* * *

"Are we seriously doing this?" Hwanwoong whispers underneath Youngjo's arms as they peer over a wall to watch the Jeon Woochi impostor, who had just disappeared into a small abandoned hut outside of town. 

"You don't have to come with me." Youngjo whispered back.

"No way, I want to catch the jerk who terrorize our serene house." Out of the hut, comes a clean, tall man, a bit skinny and he slouched a bit when he walks. "That's him?"

They followed the man at a safe distance. There were a few times the man turns around as if he is aware that he is being followed. That was due to Keonhee accidentally made a noise when he was frightened by the slight touch on his ankle, which is just his own pant leg. 

"What are you doing here, idiot. Go home." Hwanwoong scolds him quietly.

"Fat chance I'm staying home at night after Youngjo-hyung decides to remove the paper talismans so that he could trap Jeon Woochi into coming to our house." Keonhee replies. Youngjo asks them to stay further from him as to not attract more attention if they want to this and banter at the same time.

"But you have the bravery talisman, you barely made a sound when that demon decided to scare you through a mirror."

"It didn't work that well, you dumb shortie. We're almost caught just now."

"Dumb shor-" Hwanwoong's eyes widen with rage. "So that bravery talisman do work. You're not afraid to die now. Try that again, Lee Keonhee and you'll sleep here right then, on the exact ground under my feet.

"Osh!" They hear a yell and a silent string of curses. Hwanwoong and Keonhee hurriedly run to Youngjo's side as silent as they can to see what goes on. The man is circled by two dogs who are interested in the food that he bought earlier in his hand. The man brought the food to higher to his chest. "Go away, mongrels. Please. Just let me pass"

Youngjo tries to stifle a laugh. But he also pities the man. He saw how he freezes up earlier on the roof when he sees dogs. He tries to think of a way to subtlely help the man. He grabs the talisman that was tied on Keonhee's wrist and light it in a green fire. As if on cue, the dogs capture the scent of the burnt talisman and rushes off to their spot. 

Seeing as the man rushes off after his scary encounter with stray dogs, Youngjo decides to teleport with his two friends two houses over and try to follow his trail from there. He also decides to put some magic to silent Keonhee's screams because the bravery talisman is now gone. Keonhee looks exhausted when the man start walking again. 

"Are you okay, Keonhee?" Youngjo asks. Keonhee glares at him, tired, as if trying to tell Youngjo that it's not worth what he is doing. He is also mad at Youngjo for freezing his mouth and ask questions as if he could give an answer. 

"He went in there." Hwanwoong says. They see the man walks through the door of one of the houses. They walk around the house and see an opening. 

"I'm home." Yonghoon calls out as he steps through the door. There is a yell of two young boys and small footsteps can be heard approaching him. 

"Yonghoon-hyung!" Dongmyeong shouts. Yonghoon reaches out his hand to pat on his head and then Harin who follows after him.

"Let's eat." Yonghoon brings out the container he kindly asks the diner to rent out so that he could bring food home. Four boys make their way and circle the containers of food he laid out on the table. Giwook is still half asleep and he rests his head on the table. Hyungu is poking at Giwook's cheeks to wake him up. His voice is monotonous when he calls Giwook out. Harin and Dongmyeong follows him to the kitchen area to help Yonghoon to bring out the bowls, chopsticks and cup to the table. He fetches a jug of water which he expects to be a little light because he forgot to fill it up this morning. But it is heavy. "Did any of you fill this water jug?"

"Harin-hyung and and Giwook went out to fetch water today. They went with the auntie next door. Today she gave us fish bread." Dongmyeong talks excitedly. "Oh, but we accidentally ate your bread too."

"All of you?" Yonghoon asks. He doubts any of them would agree in sharing anything. He sees Harin getting close to Dongmyeong's ears and whisper something, looking anxious.

"Yea, all of us." Yonghoon hums at Dongmyeong's answer, deciding not to ask further as to not ruin their little solidarity, which Yonghoon admits is very cute. 

Hyungu is still poking on Giwook's cheeks to wake him up, but his voice is monotonous. "Giwook ah, wake up. Wakey wakey Giwookie." 

Yonghoon plops down on the floor and nuzzles up to the sleepy Giwook, pecking on his cheeks a number of times before he hears a whine from the child. 

Not even a minute after digging in, there are small quarrels about who takes which part in food, someone's water spilled, someone choked and Yonghoon sighs long and deep. He is exhausted but he knows better than to get mad so he solves the issue one by one, by picking up the cup that was down from the water spill, he gives his part of the meat to the quarreling duo and he offers water to the choking child. That was the least he can do after what these children did to him.

...

Yonghoon feels his head is shaken by some outer force, not that hard. He feels small hands on his face. "Ew, you touched him!" he hears a voice. "Go wash your hands, Harin. Don't you know, dead man has diseases." he hears another. He opens his eyes as he drags his body up from the cold ground he calls bed.

"He's not dead!" He hears another child screams. _I should be, shouldn't I_.

"Shut up, you gremlins. Leave me alone." Yonghoon yells.

...

Yonghoon is reminded by the past of how he met these kids. He was left to rot in the cold alleyway day in day out after his bestfriend betrayed him and forces him to flee from his hometown. He met these boys by chance, while they were playing. Just like how they are now, they are a bunch of kids that won't listen to him. He yells at them to leave him alone, they would always come back the next day and make noises while he sleeps. They asked him questions that boils his blood, they asks him to play with them when he has no energy to. In a way, their stubbornness saves him when he was in his loneliest times. They even brought him and introduce him to their guardian. They are a children adopted by a lonely and kind-hearted old couple whose children had left for a better life and had forgotten them. Yonghoon felt like he was adopted by four children at that time. 

Yonghoon smiles fondly at the boys. "Have I told you guys I love you? How much I love you?" Yonghoon holds his laughter as he sees exaggerated disgust on the boys' faces. He really does appreciate them, so much. They helped him get back on his feet and start again. He doesn't live with them but he stops by often to help around and talk. It wasn't long before both the couple pass away and Yonghoon decided to give back what he owe from the family. However, it was a struggle to suddenly be a father figure of four growing boys and financially too. That was how he decided to become Jeon Woochi after he heard that the wizard would be away for a while. 

[Outside]

Hwanwoong swallows a lump in his throat but Keonhee's choked sob has been going on for a while and it annoys him to no end. "Unfreezing his mouth was a bad idea." He complains to Youngjo, who is currently looking up, trying to hold his tear.

"Their family is small, but so happy." Keonhee says between hiccups and sniffles. "He's a good man."

"What are we going to do now?" Hwanwoong asks. Youngjo thinks, that explains his motive but doesn't explain how does he know some taoist magic. For all that he knows, he is still n touch with every active taoist wizard and he had never known this man.

Suddenly, a frog jumps into their field of vision causing Keonhee to scream and Hwanwoong jumping into a stance, ready to fight. 

"Who goes there!" Yonghoon shouts as he hears someone screamed outside of their house. He opens the window at that direction. But there is nothing but a broom in place, standing straight, uncanny. Yonghoon feels his hair stand. Yonghoon immediately closes the window

"What is it, hyung?" Giwook asks.

He turns to look at Giwook with a smile. "Nothing. I just feel like we should all sleep together tonight. In the same blanket." He laughs dryly.

* * *

Unfortunately for Yonghoon today, there is no client for Jeon Woochi. On his last day even. He decides to stop it once and for all. It was fun playing around with things that he used to dream, but he has to come back to reality. "Things happen, what can you do about it." He stares into the sunset. Before he could step away from his spot, he sees a familiar face. The pretty man from before.

"Good evening." The man greets. Yonghoon notices a smirk on his face.

"Good evening. Sorry, but we're closed for today." Yonghoon adds. 

"I know." Yonghoon feels suspiscious, he turns to look if he can run if things get escalated. Unlike the day he met the man before, today he feels dangerous. "I just want to talk."

Behind the man, he saw two other familiar faces. The tall one and the small one who confronted him before. " _Oh._ " He looks straight into the man's cat-like eyes. Jeon Woochi himself. The man sniggers. 

"I am offering a proposal." The man said. "I know where your magic skills stand. How would you like to keep on being Jeon Woochi, or something similar to that. I can teach you more about this, you have the potential." 

"What's the catch?" 

The man shakes his head. "Nothing. I used to work alone. I guess it could be a little... too much. The wizards I know live far far away and it's hard to ask for help." He sounds sincere... and lonely.

The man continues. "We could cover different areas and you get to keep what you were paid. What do you say? Will you join me?" 

"You just want an assistant, aren't you?" Yonghoon's remark earns a laugh from Jeon Woochi's friends. The man stuttered as he flusters. 

" Youngjo-hyung is busted." The smaller man says in between laughs. Yonghoon makes a mental note on the man's name. He thought the wizard who calls himself Jeon Woochi just because he practices the same magic as the figure in this day and age is pretentious, he did not expect the wizard's name to also sound pretentious. _Youngjo?_ Another historical figure? He chuckles.

Youngjo flusters at the sudden remark. "T-that wouldn't be a lie. But I'm serious about the offer. You could be another wizard in this town. I know and you know it pays well."

Yonghoon stands up straight. He is still thinking. Part of him is ready because it was his passion but part of him had felt the hardship of life thinks that he should play it safe. Yonghoon decides that he wants a little more push from Youngjo. "Maybe. How about we talk while having a drink? On you."

Youngjo smiles "I think I can do that. Sure."

**Author's Note:**

> An attempt has been made. Thank you for reading.
> 
> Hey prompter, if you're the one who prompted this: Jeon Woochi the Taoist wizard inspired plot (like their LIT performance on RTK) A is a scammer who pretends to have magic to make money from tourists who pass through town; B is an actual Taoist wizard ready to call A out on his bs
> 
> you can complain and claim an apology here


End file.
